Speak

Since discovering Speak, I have watched it religiously every year to remind myself of its beauty. Speak has managed to capture the loneliness, frustration, helplessness, anger, and pain that comes with not being able to stand up for yourself, perfectly. The longing to be able to speak up again and to stand by your own side, even when no one else does, has been portrayed in a rather poetic and subtle way. The movie makes it incredibly easy to follow the inner world of Melinda and still leaves a lot of room for interpretation. The scene where Melinda celebrates Christmas with her parents and is gifted the box of art utensils really stood out to me, especially because of the visual metaphor where Melinda sits with her parents, considering telling them what happened to her. While contemplating this, she opens the box, kind of like her trying to finally open up, but when she decides against telling her parents, she closes the box visualizing that she is still not ready to open up to them. It took me many watches to notice that little detail, and now I never fail at noticing it. And this is not the only scene these little visual cues that you pick up on the more you watch Speak made me realize that there is so much more to this movie than you might think at first. Despite her struggles during that time, Melinda still manages to form close relationships with people who truly believe in her and her potential, showing that sometimes, even in our worst moments, there will always be someone who can still see beauty and strength in us. I was lucky enough to never experience what Melinda had to go through, but I still relate a lot to her and see a piece of myself in her character. It is horrible to have so many things to say that just won't come out. I believe that relatability is what makes her character so easy to understand and adore. The struggle of knowing how hard it is to be trapped in a world full of silence. I still have to figure out how to speak my mind and stand up for myself after years of hiding behind others and keeping quiet out of fear, but this movie has shown me plenty of times that there is so much more to gain than to lose when fighting for yourself.